--- title: "Is St. Thomas Safe? St. John and US Virgin Islands Safety · Virgin Islands Villas" url: https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/safety description: "Is St. Thomas safe? What the police, the National Park Service and the CDC publish, the beach flags, urchins, dengue, and the numbers to call, checked Oct 2026." updated: 2026-10-09 source: https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/safety --- [US Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi) · Before you go # Is the US Virgin Islands safe? Written by Virgin Islands Villas · Updated Oct 9, 2026 · [How this was checked](https://virginislandvilla.com/editorial-policy) Is St. Thomas safe? As of October 2026, no police or health agency publishes a figure that answers it: the Virgin Islands Police Department's website carries no crime statistics, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives general advice only. Below: what they do publish on cars, water and mosquitoes, and the numbers to call. At a glance · checked Oct 9, 2026 | | | | --- | --- | | Emergency | 911 Territory-wide, per the Virgin Islands Police Department and the National Park Service, checked 2026-10-09. | | Police, St. Thomas and St. John | 340-776-9110 The number the National Park Service gives for an emergency call from a cell phone; the Virgin Islands Police Department lists the same number for the district. Checked 2026-10-09. | | Virgin Islands National Park | 340-776-6201 Report suspicious activity in the park on 1-866-995-8467 (National Park Service, checked 2026-10-09). | | Crime statistics | Not published on the police website The Virgin Islands Police Department's site lists no crime statistics or annual report, checked 2026-10-09. This page prints no figure until a tier-one source does. | | Beach flags | Red: stay out. Yellow: take care Red means large powerful waves and strong rip currents; yellow, frequent large waves and possible rip currents (National Park Service, checked 2026-10-09). | | Driving | On the left The CDC also advises against driving at night where street lighting may be poor. Checked 2026-10-09. | | Mosquitoes | Dengue and Zika are spread here The CDC advises a repellent with 20% DEET or more, long sleeves, and screened or air-conditioned rooms. Checked 2026-10-09. | ## Is St. Thomas safe, and what do the police publish? The honest answer is that the official record is thin. The Virgin Islands Police Department's website, read on October 9, 2026, lists emergency numbers, news and a traffic-records program, and no crime statistics or annual report. The CDC's page for the US Virgin Islands, last reviewed in August 2026, gives no crime figures either: its security advice is the same as for any trip, to lock the door, keep valuables stored, leave the flashy jewelry at home and stay aware of your surroundings. So this page prints no crime rate and calls no part of either island dangerous, because no tier-one source does. What a visitor can act on is the advice the authorities give, and the National Park Service is the most specific of them. One thing does change the picture for a villa week: you are in a house, not a lobby with a desk. Lock the doors and the sliding glass when you go out and at night, and ask the owner where the house keeps its spare key and who to call if something is wrong. ## Is St. John safe, and what does the park warn? The National Park Service's safety page for the Virgin Islands National Park, which covers most of St. John, last updated in September 2022, leads with the car: "Valuables have been stolen from several vehicles in the park." Its advice is to leave nothing unattended. The tradeoff: a beach day here means a parked jeep at a trailhead or a roadside lot for hours, with nobody watching it. Take the phone and the wallet to the sand, or leave them at the villa, and leave the glovebox empty. The park also asks visitors to stay on the marked trails and bring plenty of water when hiking. It gives a number for reporting suspicious activity, 1-866-995-8467, and its own line, 340-776-6201. ## What the beach flags and rip currents mean On a beach with flags, red means stay out of the water: the National Park Service defines it as "extremely hazardous ocean conditions with large powerful waves and strong rip currents." Yellow means frequent large waves and possible rip currents, so swim where you can stand and near other people. The CDC's advice is the same in fewer words: swim only in designated areas and obey lifeguards and flags. Where a beach has no lifeguard and no flag, the forecast is the flag. The National Weather Service office in San Juan covers the US Virgin Islands and issues a rip current risk for them, as it did on October 8, 2026, when it posted a moderate risk. If a current takes you out, the National Weather Service's advice is to stay calm, call for help, and swim parallel to the shore before you swim back in. ## Sea urchins, jellyfish and the manchineel tree The hazards the National Park Service names in the water are small ones. Its list is short: | Hazard | What the park says | What to do | | --- | --- | --- | | Sea urchins | Long, brittle spines that puncture skin and break off | Watch your feet on rocky entries; wear water shoes | | Stinging jellyfish | Common in park waters in the summer months | Look before you swim; a rash guard covers most of you | | Coral and reef life | Look, but don't touch | Keep hands and fins off the reef | | Manchineel trees | Extremely toxic, every part of the plant | Do not touch any part of it | The park's page does not list sharks among its hazards, and it says the park has no snakes, alligators or other dangerous animals of that kind. It does ask for reef-safe sunscreen, free of oxybenzone, octinoxate and octocrylene. ## Mosquitoes, dengue and fish to skip The CDC lists dengue and Zika among the diseases mosquitoes spread in the US Virgin Islands. Its advice is a repellent with 20% DEET or more, long sleeves at dusk, and a screened or air-conditioned room. Zika matters most to anyone pregnant, because an infected mother can pass it to her baby. As of October 9, 2026, the CDC's only travel notice for the territory is the global measles notice of May 2025, at Level 1, and the Virgin Islands Department of Health's alerts page carries no current advisory. The other risk is on the plate. Ciguatera is a toxin carried by large reef fish, and the CDC names amberjack, barracuda, grouper, moray eel and sea bass. Cooking and freezing do not destroy it, and it does not change the taste. The CDC's rule for travelers: never eat barracuda or moray eel, and skip the head, liver and roe. ## Sun, heat and driving on the left The sun is the hazard every visitor meets. The CDC advises sunscreen of SPF 15 or higher, protective clothing, and shade between 10 am and 4 pm, and says plainly that heat illness can kill: drink and eat regularly and slow down in the heat of the day. Traffic in the US Virgin Islands drives on the left, per the CDC, which also advises against driving at night where street lighting may be poor. Plan the drive back to the villa before dark on the first nights, until the road is familiar. ## Emergency numbers, and hurricane season Dial 911 for police, fire or an ambulance anywhere in the territory. From a cell phone on St. Thomas or St. John, the National Park Service also gives 340-776-9110, the Virgin Islands Police Department's number for the district. | Who | Number | | --- | --- | | Emergency | 911 | | Police, St. Thomas and St. John | 340-776-9110 | | Police, St. Croix | 340-772-9111 | | Virgin Islands National Park | 340-776-6201 | | Park, report suspicious activity | 1-866-995-8467 | Numbers from the Virgin Islands Police Department and the National Park Service, checked October 2026. Hurricanes are the seasonal risk, covered on the US Virgin Islands hurricane season page: when the season peaks, the islands' own storm record, and what a booking here does when a storm is coming. Save 911 and the district number in your phone before the first drive. ## Questions people ask **Are the US Virgin Islands safe?** No police or public-health agency publishes a crime figure a visitor can use, as of October 2026, so the useful answer is the advice the authorities give. The National Park Service warns that valuables have been stolen from cars in the park; the CDC advises locked doors, stored valuables and no night driving on poorly lit roads. In the water, obey the flags. **Is St. Thomas Virgin Islands safe?** The Virgin Islands Police Department publishes no crime statistics on its website as of October 2026, and the CDC's page gives only general advice. Act on that advice: lock the villa and the car, keep valuables out of sight, drive on the left and avoid driving at night on unlit roads. Dial 911 in an emergency, or 340-776-9110 from a cell phone. **Are the Virgin Islands safe?** This page covers the US Virgin Islands: St. Thomas, St. John and St. Croix, where 911 is the emergency number. The British Virgin Islands are a separate British territory and are not covered here. On the US side, the hazards the authorities name are practical: the car left with valuables in it, rip currents on a red-flag day, sea urchins, mosquitoes and the sun. Facts checked against [the Virgin Islands Police Department](https://www.vipd.vi.gov/), [the National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov/viis/planyourvisit/safety.htm), [the CDC](https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/destinations/traveler/none/usvirgin-islands), [the National Weather Service](https://www.weather.gov/sju/) and [the Virgin Islands Department of Health](https://doh.vi.gov/alerts-and-advisories/). Checked October 2026. Related guides - [US Virgin Islands weather by month](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/weather) - [Hurricane season in the US Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi/hurricane-season) - [All of US Virgin Islands](https://virginislandvilla.com/usvi) Own a house in the Virgin Islands? ## The guest writes to you. List your house once, for one flat fee a year. Guests find it here and their note lands in your inbox with dates and party size. You reply, you set the price, you take the booking. [Start your listing](https://virginislandvilla.com/list-your-villa)